Tastes Like War
Books | Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / Asian & Asian American
3.8
Grace M. Cho
Finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for NonfictionWinner of the 2022 Asian/Pacific American Award in LiteratureA TIME and NPR Best Book of the Year in 2021This evocative memoir of food and family history is "somehow both mouthwatering and heartbreaking... [and] a potent personal history" (Shelf Awareness).Grace M. Cho grew up as the daughter of a white American merchant marine and the Korean bar hostess he met abroad. They were one of few immigrants in a xenophobic small town during the Cold War, where identity was politicized by everyday details—language, cultural references, memories, and food. When Grace was fifteen, her dynamic mother experienced the onset of schizophrenia, a condition that would continue and evolve for the rest of her life.Part food memoir, part sociological investigation, Tastes Like War is a hybrid text about a daughter’s search through intimate and global history for the roots of her mother’s schizophrenia. In her mother’s final years, Grace learned to cook dishes from her parent’s childhood in order to invite the past into the present, and to hold space for her mother’s multiple voices at the table. And through careful listening over these shared meals, Grace discovered not only the things that broke the brilliant, complicated woman who raised her—but also the things that kept her alive.“An exquisite commemoration and a potent reclamation.” —Booklist (starred review)“A wrenching, powerful account of the long-term effects of the immigrant experience.” —Kirkus Reviews
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Author
Grace M. Cho
Pages
293
Publisher
Feminist Press at CUNY
Published Date
2021-05-18
ISBN
1952177952 9781952177958
Ratings
Google: 1
Community ReviewsSee all
"My mouth was watering with all the talk of Korean dishes! Glad I took the time to read this, it opened my eyes to things my ancestors may have had to live through. "
Mia Corkum
"I didn’t want to offer a star rating, but that was the only way I could write a review, so two stars. If I were rating it as a memoir alone, I might have rated it lower. This was mostly speculation about her mother and describing her experience and observations of her mother than about the author herself. Not quite enough about the author to be a memoir, not nearly cemented in facts enough to be a biography, I wouldn’t really know how to categorize this. The reason I’m giving this two stars instead of one is mostly for the ability to craft this story well and the healing thread of food which I thought really drew in the reader and injected moments of joy into something largely focused on survival and struggle, I found it to be very moving. After finishing this book, and the feeling that this whole narrative (again, heavily speculative) seemed a bit fishy never went away, I learned about how the whole family is contesting what is in this book. So, are they contesting it out of pride or because it’s patently false? I’m not involved, I have absolutely no clue, but if the clear speculative content throughout gives us clues, the family might have a leg to stand on which would be really very sad for the author to have dragged everyone into this because of desire for success. "
C
CaitVD
"Loved this memoir speaking to mental health, Korean War survivors and culture as an immigrant/ kid of one. "
Lauren Hybza
"I loved this book. Enjoyed the historical aspects intertwined with learning about the cultural significance of the family recipes. "
Dani
"I didn’t know about any of the family drama when I started reading this book- but my rating stays the same now. <br/><br/>I loved bits and pieces of this book, but there were other bits and pieces that just didn’t seem accurate or fit in with the narrative being told. After reading some of the other members of the family’s reviews, I understand why (they claim the entire things is a fabrication). <br/>Now, whether Grace is blatantly lying throughout this whole memoir, or whether different members of the family just have drastically different memories of their lives…I don’t know. What I do know is that this memoir did not feel like it was spoken in whole truth. The timeline was weird, there was a lot of information that I felt didn’t really make sense, and some of the things she claims just don’t sit right with me (she’s 2 or 3 but can remember in vivid detail her father beating her mother and breaking her nose [which now I know her brother claims did not happen]? She’s 15 and good enough to be playing a concerto on the piano, but then immediately gives it up with little context?)<br/><br/>I dunno, man. Brains and memories are tricky things. I’m leaving my review as two stars because who am I to say she’s wrong about her own childhood? But also, I didn’t like the book."
Rachel Ord
"I appreciated how Grace M Cho let the world into such a vulnerable part of her life in a way to educate others.
I didn’t know much about the Korean War or America’s involvement in Korea in general. I know about mental health issues, but schizophrenia was not one that I knew very well. By writing this memoir, Cho used her own family’s story to educate on these two very important things, schizophrenia and Korean history. And with that, I learned a lot.
While I thought the way that Chi wrote this was very different from a typical memoir, making it story based versus timeline based, it really made the stories of her navigation with her mom’s diagnosis and history a powerful work of art. However, sometimes the timeline would get jumbled and I wouldn’t understand where I was in Cho’s life compared to her mom’s life.
I really did enjoy this. I only picked it up because the library was doing an “unlimited” copies read for their members, so I grabbed it. And I’m very glad I did. "
Jesse Bures
"I can't rate this book. It was brutally personal, in some ways. It raised a lot of questions about my own family and their experiences, and was very enlightening on the immigrant experience. Was difficult to get through - not the read itself, but the content - and I simply did not always have the mental capacity or perhaps the emotional stability to read this. It hurt a lot.<br/><br/>Even if fabricated I think there are things to learn from this book, though an emotionally driven argument does undermine itself if built off exaggeration."
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